1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to surgical instruments and, more particularly, to surgical stapling instruments and staples for use therewith.
2. Description of Related Art
In addition, in various embodiments, ring 972 may be laced with or otherwise comprise a healing agent that, when in contact with tissue would enhance the healing of the tissue within the anastomotic site. Additionally, ring 972 may include or otherwise comprise a remotely detectable material that allows the position and orientation of ring 972 to be sensed in the patient at some later point in time. For example, ring 972 could be made from a material that is opaque to certain frequencies of radio waves or otherwise detectable by electromagnetic radiation. That way, the position and orientation of ring 972 at the anastomotic site may be identifiable using an x-ray machine, for example. In other embodiments, ring 972 may be made from a material having or otherwise comprise fluorescent nanoparticles that can be detected using a fluoroscopy device. The nanoparticles may be, for example, inorganic nanoparticles, like a semiconductor nanocrystals, silica-based nanoparticles such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/536,569, entitled FLUORESCENT SILICA-BASED NANOPARTICLES, filed on Nov. 26, 2003, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/119,969, entitled PHOTOLUMINESCENT SILICA-BASED SENSORS AND METHODS OF USE, filed on May 2, 2005, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/306,614, entitled FLUORESCENT SILICA-BASED NANOPARTICLES, filed on Nov. 26, 2002, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein, or any other inorganic particle capable of attaching to or containing a fluorescence material. The nanoparticles may be also be organic nanoparticles, like liposomal spheres, dimer structures, or other organic structures capable of attaching to or containing a fluorescence material.
Some surgical staplers, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,895, entitled SURGICAL STAPLER INSTRUMENT, issued on Nov. 14, 1995, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, can include an end effector having a cutting member and staple driver, for example, where the cutting member and staple driver can be moved along a linear, curved, and/or curvilinear path within the end effector. Such surgical staplers are often referred to as endocutters and can be utilized during gastric bypass surgical techniques in which the size of a patient's stomach can be reduced, for example. One of the most common gastric bypass surgical techniques is a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. In such a technique, the stomach can be transected into at least two portions where one of the portions can be formed into a small pouch which can be connected directly to a middle portion of the patient's small intestine, i.e., the jejunum. In various circumstances, the endocutter can be used to cut the stomach along a desired path and deploy staples into the stomach tissue in order to hold the stomach tissue together. As a result of the above-described technique, food passing through the digestive tract can bypass the other transected portion of the stomach and an upper portion of the small intestine, i.e., the duodenum.
Other surgical staplers, such as intra-luminal, or circular, staplers, for example, have been developed to assist a surgeon during a surgical technique known as an anastomosis. An anastomosis is a surgical technique in which a small and/or large intestine is transected, a portion thereof is excised, and the remaining portions are joined together. This technique often requires a surgeon to transect the small intestine, for example, at two locations creating a first end, a second end, and an intermediate portion. Thereafter, the intermediate portion can be removed and the first and second ends can be positioned adjacent to each other. In order to join the first and second ends, the first and second ends can be positioned within an intra-luminal, or circular, stapler such that staples can be deployed into the first and second ends around the perimeter thereof to hold the first and second ends together. Such staplers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,025, entitled INTRALUMINAL ANASTOMOTIC SURGICAL STAPLER WITH DETACHED ANVIL, issued on Apr. 14, 1992, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,927, entitled CIRCULAR STAPLER TISSUE RETENTION SPRING METHOD, issued on May 10, 1994, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.